i come to you in pieces
by of starlight
Summary: "The entire time away from you was hell, Rachel. I turned off the emotional switch and it still felt like there was a piece of me missing and that was because I didn't have your insufferable ass around to drive me insane." damon/rachel


**entitled;** i come to you in pieces (so you can make me whole)  
><strong>summary; <strong>_"__The entire time away from you was hell, Rachel. I turned off the emotional switch and it still felt like there was a piece of me missing and that was because I didn't have your insufferable ass around to drive me insane."_  
><strong>rating;<strong> T  
><strong>disclaimer;<strong> i own nothing.  
><strong>notes;<strong> n/a.

* * *

><p><strong>i come to you in pieces (so you can make me whole)<br>**

**.**

_then i see your face  
>i know i'm finally yours<br>i find everything i thought i lost before  
>you call my name<br>i come to you in pieces  
>so you can make me whole<em>

- pieces red

* * *

><p>Walking alone at night was the one thing Damon had told her to <em>never<em> do. It was the only thing he'd actually ever begged her not to do, but she was so damn sure that she had nothing to worry about as she left the school building, that Rachel never once thought she'd end up in the hands of Klaus.

Yet there she sat, in the middle of his apartment as he paced back and forth in front of the chair she was strapped to, his eyes locked on her the entire time, "You're a really feisty one, aren't you?"

Rachel glared at him, refusing to let him get a single word out of her.

"He's not going to come for you, sweetheart." Klaus kneeled in front of her, gripping her chin tightly in his hand, "I have people that have gone to make sure of that. So, why don't you be a dear, and just cooperate with me."

"I know he's not coming." Rachel spat, feeling the tears start to pool in her eyes as she glared down at him, "Did no one tell you he's moved on to his next _toy_?"

Klaus's eye narrowed as he looked into her eyes, "Did he now?"

"Do you honestly think I would have been leaving school, at night, _alone_, if we were still together? He would have never let that happen." Rachel snapped, rolling her eyes in an effort to keep her the oncoming tears at bay.

Klaus glared up at her before standing upright once more, "Then why don't you cooperate with me, dear?" he asked, walking over to the wooden table on the other side of the room and coming back with a thin dagger, quickly moving it to the base of Rachel's neck, "You know, I don't like having to kill pretty little things such as yourself, but I won't hesitate to make you watch as I kill him, before ending your sad excuse for a life, if you don't tell me what I need to know."

Rachel stood still as the cool, sharp tip of the blade pressed against her skin, a small whimper leaving her lips as she felt it just barely pierce her skin, "What makes you think I have any idea where Stefan and Katherine are?"

Klaus grinned, that charming grin of his that made Rachel's stomach clench uncomfortably, "Oh we both know that Damon tells you everything. Not to mention Stefan cares for you as if you were his own kin. I'm positive he wouldn't have disappeared without leaving _something_ behind."

"Well you're wrong." Rachel answered, her gaze not once moving from the dagger at her neck, "And if he did, clearly I'm not that smart because I didn't figure it out when I was supposed to, seeing as he's been gone for 4 months and _I_ still don't know where he is."

Klaus was silent after that, and it made Rachel finally lift her gaze from the dagger to his face, where he was watching her ever so carefully. Finally he pulled the dagger back and simply stated, "You're not lying."

Rachel felt a tiny bead of blood trickle down her neck from where the dagger had pierced her skin as she nodded to confirm what he had just realized, "I'd be stupid to lie to an Original. I learned that when Elijah was the problem, and not you."

Klaus chuckled, a dark sound that sent shivers crawling up Rachel's spine, "And she's smart, too? Honestly, where do the Salvatore brothers find their women?"

Rachel rolled her eyes at that, but the sound of screams suddenly filled her ears and Klaus was quick to glance outside the window. A small smirk graced his lips as he turned to look at her again, "Looks like we've got company, sweetheart, and he's created quite the bloodbath downstairs."

Rachel's stomach dropped as she slowly started shaking her head back and forth; it wasn't Damon. It couldn't be. How could he be so stupid? He broke up with her, he had no right getting himself killed trying to save her now.

The sound of the door being kicked in made Rachel shriek, and she found herself staring at the very person she had honestly hoped wouldn't be there. He was standing in the doorway with blood on his lips, his eyes dark and the veins around them popping out as he glared at Klaus, the severed head of some female Rachel didn't recognize hanging from his hand. It was like seeing Damon back when she first found out he was a vampire and it terrified her, seeing him that way. She'd accepted that side of him, yes, but she'd seen him grow out of that throughout their entire relationship; did he honestly break up with her to go back to that?

"You know, I've never believed in that '_Don't kill the messenger'_ crap." Damon shrugged, tossing the severed head at Klaus's feet before reaching up to wipe all traces of blood from his mouth, "Because killing the messenger sends a pretty clear message, don't you think?"

Rachel wanted to shout at him, tell him to leave, call him stupid, do just about _anything_ that would make him look at her, but she noticed that he was trying very hard _not_ to look at her, and that made her heart shatter all on its own; he obviously wanted to make sure she didn't think that him getting her out of this mess meant anything more than what it was.

"That was a very stupid thing you did." Klaus's voice had gone deathly quiet, and Rachel's heart started to race at the mere thought of Klaus doing something to hurt Damon, "You know, I'm honestly starting to wonder why someone like her would fall in love with someone like you. She's a lot smarter than you are."

Rachel gasped softly as Klaus walked around the room until he was standing behind her, brushing his index finger lightly against her cheek. He then rested the hand holding the dagger lightly on her opposite shoulder. She wasn't quite sure what he was getting at, since Damon clearly didn't care about her feelings for him.

"Full of passion, ambition and _fire_." Rachel could hear the smirk in Klaus's voice and the next thing she knew, his wrist was pressed roughly against her lips and his blood was quickly making its way into her mouth. In a moment of panic, Rachel swallowed, her eyes widening the minute she saw Damon getting ready to pounce. Quickly she shook her head, doing her best to beg him with her eyes to not do anything stupid. When Klaus finally removed his wrist from her mouth, Rachel gasped for the air she hadn't thought on enough to get through her nose and she started coughing lightly, "Now, I just might keep her for myself after I get what I want from you and kill you."

"What the hell would you want with her?" Damon snorted and rolled his eyes, crossing his arms over his chest. He moved to lean against the wall as he did his best to keep from meeting her gaze, "She's loud, obnoxious and can't shut up to save her own damn life. Not to mention she's one hell of a prude."

That hurt; yes she'd heard it countless times from several different people before, but she'd never once heard Damon say anything like that about her, at least not seriously. Not when they hated each other, not when they were friends and certainly not while they were together.

Klaus let out that chuckle of his and though Rachel honestly didn't want to take her gaze off Damon, she turned to look at Klaus as he moved around her slowly. He started toying with the dagger in his hands as he started to speak, "Can we please not pretend like you're not still in love with her?"

Rachel's eyes shot towards Damon, watching eyes his eyes widened a bit and it only took Rachel a second to figure out why; right after those words left Klaus's lips, the hand holding the dagger quickly moved across Rachel's forearm and slashed through the material of her cardigan, to her skin, pulling a loud scream from her lips the minute it happened.

"She's very loud, yes," Klaus nodded, still walking around her, grinning maniacally as Damon growled at him, "I always did love the screamers. Tell me, Damon, is she this loud in bed?"

A soft sob left Rachel's lips as Klaus started to leave several semi-deep cuts along her arms, then legs until he finally dragged the dagger across her right cheek. He'd left her a bloody, whimpering mass as Damon stood there and watched, the anger in him beyond anything she'd ever seen.

"Now, either you tell me where your brother is, or she dies." Klaus stopped in front of her, turning to face Damon with a smirk, "Only to be reborn as the one thing you never wanted her to become."

Rachel looked up at Klaus's back, feeling weak as the blood she'd slowly been losing started to add up; she was light-headed and weak and she honestly didn't think she'd be awake for much longer when it happened.

Damon ran for Klaus, who merely shook his head and had Damon pinned to the wall behind him in a matter of seconds, the dagger already deep inside Damon's gut as Klaus spoke, "You really are that stupid. Tsk, tsk, Damon. Now, I'm going to kill her, and when she wakes up a vampire, I'm going to stake her myself before throwing her into the middle of the ocean because of that little mistake; it must be terrible for you to love something that Death can touch. Now, where's Stefan?"

"Right behind you."

Rachel swore she was hallucinating when she saw Stefan walk up behind Klaus, stabbing him with a dagger similar to the one they'd used to kill Elijah, but when she felt Katherine's cool hands moving to untie her, Rachel's eyes jerked open and she opened her mouth to ask what was going on when Katherine shook her head, "Don't talk. Honestly, nothing personal, but every time you open your mouth it's hard to get you to stop."

At that point, Rachel didn't even have the energy to argue with the female vampire so she just sat there and watched as Klaus fell to the floor and Stefan walked over to pull the dagger out of Damon, moving to make sure he was alright.

"You took your sweet ass time." Damon growled, pushing past Stefan and shoving Katherine out of the way so he could kneel in front of Rachel, "Look at what he did to her!"

"You're the only one at fault for this, Damon." Katherine sneered, glaring down at Damon, "Don't try blaming us because you didn't get to her at the school on time."

Damon glared at Katherine before turning his attention back to Rachel who was falling in and out of consciousness at that point. Sighing softly, he moved to carefully slip his arms under her knees and behind her back to lift her up, "I don't know what you two are planning to do, but I'm going to take her back home. And Stefan, if you're planning on taking off again, at least go visit Fabray, she's starting to bug me with that zombie act of hers."

Hauling ass out of Klaus' apartment, Damon stared down at Rachel, his eyes softening just the slightest as he took in the several gashes and the blood that was quickly starting to dry against her skin, "Don't fall asleep, Rachel. Look at me."

It took a few seconds, but Rachel managed to look up at Damon as he ran through the town in order to get back to the Salvatore house, the cold rush of the air making her shiver and shift closer towards his chest, "You're stupid…"

Damon snorted, "Of course that's the first thing you'd say after nearly getting killed by Klaus."

"I would have ended up a vampire. He would have killed you." She mumbled, sighing softly against his chest.

"I had a plan." Damon sighed; it was a poorly thought out one, yes, but at least it'd worked.

"You're horrible with plans."

"I know."

Rachel was silent after that, and Damon had to keep looking down to make sure she wasn't knocking out again, but every time he looked down, he found her staring up at him and he had to fight back a groan; it was really hard to resist someone who was staring at him with those stupid, big, brown eyes of hers, and he'd been going on so well in that department lately.

... Alright, so he'd been doing horribly, but honestly, how could he be doing any good when that mohawked caveman had taken advantage of the fact that he wasn't with Rachel anymore to try to get up her tiny skirts? Growling softly, Damon shook his head, ignoring the look of confusion he was sure Rachel was wearing on her face right now.

It only took him a few minutes after that to finally get to the boarding house, where he quickly kicked open the door, mentally telling himself that he'd have to fix it later, and carried Rachel up to his room. Once inside, he set her carefully down on his bed and moved to take his jacket and shirt off; he was going to have to find a way to wash her blood off of them, or at least off of his jacket. It was his favorite leather one, and he did not need the smell of her blood tormenting him every time he wore it; he was barely able to contain himself at that moment, he didn't think he could handle having the scent of her blood around him all the time.

Without bothering to put on another shirt, he walked over to his bathroom, turning on the warm water and letting it fill the tub before he walked back to Rachel. She was slowly drifting in and out of consciousness, and he had to shake her a bit to keep her from knocking out, "Come on, Rachel, I'm going to get you cleaned up. You have to stay with me."

Rachel whimpered slightly as Damon moved to pull off her red cardigan, then her pink blouse, quickly followed by her white skirt, now stained red with her blood. The sight of it made him want to hit something. The sight of _her_ made him want to kill Klaus, but the damn bastard was already dead, or at least as dead as he could be until they found a way to put him permanently under.

With an irritated sigh, Damon ran a hand through his hair, "I know you don't like drinking my blood, Rachel, but it would honestly make things so much better if you healed faster."

Rachel stared up at him for a moment before sighing herself and nodding, slowly moving to sit up, another whimper leaving her lips before Damon moved forward with a scowl, holding her down, "Don't move."

"Damon-!"

"_Rachel._"

The irritation in his voice was enough to make Rachel stop her objections and simply nod; she didn't know what was going to happen after this, and he had been so attentive the entire time. She didn't want to waste any time she had with Damon by making him angry with her.

She wasn't, however, going to just completely ignore the fact that Klaus was sure Damon was in love with her; watching him now, being so careful and cautious compared to how brash he normally was, made it impossible for her to do so, so when he moved to bite down on his wrist, she asked, "Damon… Why did you really break up with me?"

She saw his shoulders tense as he held his wrist out to her mouth, but she didn't take her eyes off of his even as she moved forward to take the blood from his wrist. She hated the metallic taste of it, but she just swallowed, letting in run down her throat before pulling back, never once taking her eyes off him, "Answer me, Damon. Klaus said you were in love with me. So, you were lying when you broke up with me, because I find it incredibly difficult to believe that Klaus of all people would have a reason to lie about something like that. I honestly don't think he would have gone through all the trouble of capturing _me_ if I didn't mean a great deal to you."

Damon's eyes were darting around, looking at anywhere but Rachel as he slipped his hands into the pockets of his black jeans, "Can we not do this right now?"

Rachel felt anger bubble inside her; she knew it was hard for Damon to go anywhere near talking about emotions, but she had every right to know why he had decided so suddenly to cut off their relationship, "Damon. You will tell me _now_."

Damon's eyes landed on her, dark and threatening as he stepped forward, and she knew she'd said the wrong thing, "_Don't_ tell me what to do, Rachel."

Feeling the pain from all her wounds subsiding a bit, Rachel shifted on the bed. She was tempted to move away from him, but she'd never been the type to listen to that instinct around Damon, despite knowing that he could very well kill her if he wanted to, "Then tell me. I deserve to know why you decided I wasn't worth your time and effort anymore, Damon."

He moved forward, placing his hand against her shoulder so she wouldn't move anymore, a frown on his lips, "What did I tell you about moving?"

"Don't change the subject!" Rachel finally shouted, shoving his hand away and carefully bringing herself to her feet, "Damon. Just _tell_ me. _Please_?"

Damon's jaw was clenched as she stood there in front of him, not even a foot keeping them apart as he took in the scars that were starting to heal as his blood took affect. The dried blood on her arms and legs started chipping away with every movement she made. His eyes spotted the way her knees buckled, letting him know that she was having trouble standing on her own. All of that added with the desperation in her voice and in her eyes made him snap.

His hand shot out, wrapping itself around her neck to pull her in as he leaned forward to press his lips roughly against hers. His fingers quickly made work of tangling themselves in her hair as he used his other arm to pull her body right up against his. It had been too damn long since he'd been able to do this.

Unfortunately for him, Rachel wasn't easily distracted; she pulled back, breathing heavily as she glared up at Damon while he groaned, "_Damon._"

"What?" he looked down at her, an eyebrow quirked upwards, "You can't blame me for wanting you when your half-naked and covered in blood."

"You're disgusting."

"Says the girl in love with a _vampire_."

Rachel continued to glare up at him, even though he could tell by the way she licked her lips that she had been enjoying that as much as he was. Sighing, Damon shook his head, "Can you just let me get you cleaned up first? We can talk about it after?"

Rachel scowled, "I will clean _myself_ up. We're talking about this the minute I'm done, Damon. I mean it."

Damon rolled his eyes and nodded, watching as she slowly made her way towards his bathroom; he wasn't so sure she'd be able to do much on her own without some kind of trouble, so he was going to stick around in his room just in case. Obviously, he'd hear her no matter where he was in the house, but after being away from her so long, he just didn't want to be too far away from her at the moment.

He'd broken up with her because he honestly thought she deserved better than him; he'd constantly put her in the line of danger and there had been one too many near death experiences for her. He didn't want to have her in such a position anymore, and he thought she'd be smart enough to see that herself. He'd even assumed that she'd fly straight into the arms of Puckerman or her dolt of an ex-boyfriend, so that maybe she could fall back into the routine that was her old life, but she hadn't. The four months they'd been apart, that he'd been plotting with Katherine and Stefan from a distance, all he'd seen was her closed off. He never once spotted her with anyone else. She'd completely isolated herself from everybody else and the only times she dealt with people was when she absolutely had to. She had literally done the exact opposite of what he wanted her to do.

And no matter how much he hated seeing her like that, a part of him, a very _large_ part of him, actually, was glad that he meant so much to her. Because he'd pretty much went back to his old lifestyle the minute they were through. No matter what he did or how hard he tried to just keep her out of his mind, nothing worked, so he slipped back into what he did best - walking around with that emotional switch turned off.

He knew she'd be angry with him about that part, but after seeing her again, holding her, _kissing_ her, he didn't think he could just walk out of her life again. He needed her there, and it was pretty obvious she wasn't safe without him around either, and at least if he was around, she had better chances of staying alive.

After a few more minutes of hearing her moving around in the bathroom, Damon shook his head and walked over his bed, tearing the comforter off before laying on it; the smell of her blood was too damn strong, and too damn _good_. He was going to have to Febreeze the whole damn place or something, before he went insane. It was hard enough restraining himself around her when she already smelled so damn good, adding the scent of her blood to the mix wasn't going to help him one bit.

"Damon?"

Damon looked over at Rachel, who standing in his room with a towel wrapped around her petite form and groaned, "Honestly, you scold me whenever I pull things like that, but you do it and I'm not allowed to take advantage of the situation."

Rachel frowned, "I couldn't come back dressed in my other clothes, all covered in blood. I know you have some of my things around."

Damon smirked, pushing himself off his bed and moving towards one of his drawers to pull out a pair of black lacy panties he'd taken from her once, tossing them to her, "Had to go getting everything bloodied up, I took that pair for a reason."

Rachel rolled her eyes, catching the pair with the hand that wasn't trying to keep her towel up, "Are you serious, Damon? The only thing you have here is my _underwear_? How could I have expected any different?"

"Beats me." Damon shrugged with a grin before pulling out one of his black v-necks and tossing it to her, "You'll just have to make do with that."

She sighed and shook her head before walking back to the bathroom with his shirt and her underwear in hand, "You better go get me some clothes from my house after this."

Damon rolled his eyes; she was still as demanding as ever. He honestly could not believe he had ever missed that. But he did. He missed everything about her. Every bit of her crazy, neurotic personality had become a daily routine in his life and he'd gone without it for four whole months, the entire time feeling like something was missing, even when he flipped the switch.

He was just about to sit back down on his bed when she walked back into his room, trying to tug the shirt down as low as it could and he smirked, knowing very well it wouldn't go past her thighs.

"So, why'd you do it?" she asked, standing in front of him with her arms crossed over her chest.

"Do you have any idea how hard it is to take you seriously when you're dressed like that?" he asked, moving to place his hands on her waist.

"Damon." Rachel repeated with a warning tone and Damon sighed, pulling back.

"Look… I did it because _I _thought that it would be better if you just slipped back into your normal life, alright? I thought… You'd be safer that way, but tonight was enough to prove that I was… _mistaken_." Damon pursed his lips, looking down at her as if he was waiting for her to shout at him again before continuing, "I didn't want you to end up dying because of me, or Katherine or anyone. And I know that I put you through a lot, because… The entire time away from you was hell, Rachel. I turned off the emotional switch and it still felt like there was a piece of me missing and that was because I didn't have your insufferable ass around to drive me insane. No matter how many times I reminded myself that I didn't deserve you, and you definitely deserved a whole lot better than me."

Damon was surprised when Rachel stomped her foot, glaring up at him, "What is it with everybody trying to decide what's best for me? I can very well make those decisions on my own, _thank you_. Damon, you've made mistakes, and I'm sure several people will hold a grudge against you for years to come because they don't know you at all. They have no idea what the _real_ you is like and maybe there are still some things I don't know myself, but I don't want anyone else but _you_. It doesn't matter if you think I deserve better or not because the fact of the matter is, Damon, I think you _do_ deserve me-!"

Rachel had opened her mouth to continue, but Damon was already on her, pulling her body against his as his mouth slanted over hers, and he walked them over to the bed, pushing her until her back hit the bed and he was hovering above her, kissing her lips repeatedly as he remembered to pull back and let her breathe.

"Point taken." Damon stated with a smirk as he moved to press his lips against hers once more, loving the way she responded in earnest.

Slipping her arms around his neck before pulling back, Rachel looked up at him, biting down on her lower lip, "So… We're not broken up anymore?"

Damon scoffed, "Are you honestly offending me by asking that question?"

"Just making sure." Rachel asked, smiling up at him.

"Whatever." Damon rolled his eyes, "Can we please go back to initiating the hot sex we both know is very much inevitable?"

Rachel let out a soft giggle, nodding, "We most definitely can."

**[end.]**


End file.
